So-called ‘experts’ keep getting it wrong

For more than a year, the public media has been inundated by the expression “... less (or more) than economists had expected.” Rarely have the names or even the affiliations of the supposed oracular economists been mentioned. Yet this vague and uncertain explanation of the multitude of daily economic statistics is repeated ad infinitum. The apparent intent is to impart an air of authority to direct the “uninformed” public to a certain conclusion.

Other stereotyped phrases include “slight improvements” and “hopeful signs.”

Benchmark predictions concerning the real economy by those in authority have consistently come up short; a year ago. it was declared that unemployment would top out at 8 percent, more recently, we were assured it would not breach 10 percent.

Now, with an unemployment rate of

10.2 percent at the end of October, presidents of the Regional Federal Reserve Banks out of San Francisco and Atlanta have cautioned that high unemployment could extend to 2012 and slow economic recovery.

George Black

Iowa City